How is "pretty" translated?

Question

Of course, I don't mean pretty as in good looking. I mean it in the (possibly more idiomatic) sense of "to a comfortable or moderately high degree, but not entirely". For example "That's pretty good." or "He's a pretty skilled player!".

I thought sufiĉe would work, but I was told that it's better translated as enough rather than pretty. "pretty good" and "good enough" feel like they mean slightly different things to me, which is where my problem lies. Is sufiĉe still what I should go with, or is their a better option?

Answer 1

Note that one definition of sufiĉe is “Mezgrade, tolereble, konsiderinde” (“to a medium degree, tolerably, considerably”) with example “cetere ĝi (la muziko) estis sufiĉe bona”. In some situations, “pretty good” and “good enough” have pretty (haha…) similar meanings:

• “I saw that movie the other day. The acting was good enough, but the story was bad”/“The acting was pretty good, but the story was bad.”
• “How did you enjoy the party? It was fun enough”/“It was pretty fun.”

I would just use sufiĉe, but if you really want to be clear about meaning “it’s at a moderately high degree but not totally x”, you can just say that. You could probably even just cut it down to “moderately”/”tolerably”/”considerably” and use the words from the definition above.

Answer 2

The most straightforward method is to insert ja, which similarly emphasizes the statement being made without committing to an explicit "very" which might seem an exaggeration.

I think what makes pretty hard to translate is that it is frequently used in ironic understatements.

Emphasis

Try ja, vere, certe, sendube or honeste, konfes(end)e, rimarkige, notinde etc.

• Li ja estas forta. He's pretty strong.
• Tio konfesende estas bona. That is pretty [it must be admitted] good.
• Ŝi estas rimarkige/notinde rapida. She is remarkably/notably quick.

Moderation

Try supermeze, relative, etc.

• Ŝi estas supermeze lerta. She is cleverer than most.
• La hotelo estas relative bona. The hotel is relatively good.

Condescension

Try iom, -eta, etc.

• Tio estis lerteta movo via. That was a pretty clever move of yours.
• Vi kredas vin iom fortika, ĉu ne? You think you're pretty tough, don't you?

Answer 3

My first instinct is to go with iomete, which according to this dictionary means a little, rather.

Li estas iomete alta. (He is pretty tall.),

Tiuj floroj estas iomete beletaj. (Those flowers are pretty pretty.)